The root knot nematode (Meloidogyne chitwoodi Golden, O'Bannon, Santo et Finley, 1980) is an important pest of potatoes throughout the world. It is in international quarantine list of many countries. This species was first reported in Nigde and Nevsehir in 2009 Turkey. The objective of the study was to identify the species of root-knot nematodes collected from potato fields in the province of Bitlis where potatoes are grown extensively in 2010. 16 potato tubers were found infected with the root knot nematode. Egg masses and females of root knot nematodes were obtained using binocular stereo microscope from the infected tubers. For the morphological identification of individuals, female vulva and second term juveniles were prepared. At the same time DNA was extracted from egg masses of nematodes and SCAR primers (JMV1, JMV2 and JMVhapla) were used in PCR. Specific SCAR fragment were obtained from the extracted DNA. The multiplex PCR reaction produced the 540 bp fragment for M. chitwoodi. Both the morphological and molecular methods showed that the samples were M. chitwoodi. This study was the first to show the existence of the species in Eastern Anatolian region. The species attacks potato tubers and make them unmarketable due to deformation, lowers the quality of potato chips and french fries for the processing industry.


ABSTRACT The Laozi expounds a thoroughgoing and sustained criticism of government and society. In this paper, I will demonstrate that although this criticism is addressed to the ancient Chinese state, it can also have some validity for the modern state of today. I will first briefly discuss the metaphysical grounds of this criticism and stress that the ruler should use wuwei in governing. Then, I will examine the Laozi's criticism of the oppressive governments that use unnatural governing through youwei which increases the state disorder, as well as how this criticism is supported by its metaphysical grounds. Third, I will show that the selfish desires may significantly contribute to the state disorder and that the only one to be blamed for the arousing of them is the ruler. At last, I will attempt to show that this criticism may also to a certain extent be directed toward today's modern state.


Nano- crystallization of Fe55Cr18Mo7B16C4 bulk amorphous alloy has been analyzed by X- ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetric test, and TEM observations in this research. In practice, crystallization and growth mechanism were evaluated using DSC tests in four different heating rates (10, 20, 30, 40 K/min) and kinetic models. A two -step crystallization process was observed in the alloy in which α – Fe, Fe23B6, and Fe3C phases were crystallized in the structure after annealing process. In addition, activation energy for the first step of crystallization process (i.e. α – Fe phase) was measured to be 276 (kj/mol) and 290 (kj/mol) according to Kissinger and Ozawa models respectively. Avrami exponent calculated from DSC curves was 2 and a three -dimensional diffusion controlled mechanism with decreasing nucleation rate was observed in the alloy. Further, it is known from the TEM observations that crystalline α – Fe phase nucleated in structure of the alloy in an average size of 10 nm and completely mottled morphology.


1. Rat liver mitochondria were separated on the basis of their sedimentation coefficients in an iso-osmotic gradient of Ficoll-sucrose by rate zonal centrifugation. The fractions (33, each of 40ml) were collected in order of decreasing density. Fractions were analysed by spectral analysis to determine any differences in the concentrations of the cytochromes and by enzyme analyses to ascertain any differences in the activities of NADH dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase and alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase. 2. When plotted as% of the highest specific concentration, the contents of cytochrome a+a(3) and cytochrome c+c(1) were constant in all fractions but cytochrome b was only 65% of its maximal concentration in fraction 7 and increased with subsequent fractions. As a result, the cytochrome b/cytochrome a+a(3) ratio almost doubled between fractions 7 and 25 whereas the cytochrome c+c(1)/cytochrome a+a(3) ratio was unchanged. 3. Expression of the dehydrogenase activities as% of highest specific activity showed the following for fractions 6-26: NADH dehydrogenase activity remained fairly constant in all fractions; succinate dehydrogenase activity was 62% in fraction 6 and increased steadily to its maximum in fraction 18 and then decreased; the activity of alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase was only 53% in fraction 6 and increased slowly to its peak in fractions 22 and 24. 4. These differences did not result from damaged or fragmented mitochondria or from microsomal contamination. 5. These results demonstrate that isolated liver mitochondria are biochemically heterogeneous. The importance of using a system for separating biochemically different mitochondria in studies of mitochondrial biogenesis is discussed.


Historically, immunization has been designed to prevent the onset of infectious disease, with vaccines acting as prophylactic agents. However, over the course of time immunization has evolved to include a therapeutic objective whereby individuals who have already contracted an infectious or neoplastic disease, and where traditional treatment options are limited, are vaccinated. With diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis the limited success of traditional chemotherapeutic and prophylactic approaches has resulted in the experimental advancement of therapeutic genetic immunization, where the host immune system is to be modulated to improve disease prognosis or ultimately, eradicate the infection. Furthermore, for cancer, a major non-infectious disease, similar experimental treatments are underway. Here we will explore how genetic immunization enables re-direction of the host immune system resulting in the development of effective immune responses.


Defoe's "Tour Through the Whole island of Great Britain", first published in three volumes in 1724-26, is an account of 13 "circuits or journies" made by the renowned author of such books as "Robinson Crusoe" and "Moll Flanders". This abridged edition is also the first illustrated version. Defoe's famous text is now complemented by contemporary paintings, sketches, and engravings of places he visited, industrial processes, activities and events he described, and people he knew. Many of these illustrations are little known, and some have never before been reproduced. Defoe's "Tour" has been the most often-quoted source for early 18th century British social and economic history. It is also a very personal book, conveying a sense of "the romance of trade" as felt by an enthusiast at a time of rapid commercial expansion. Different from earlier (largely antiquarian) descriptions of Great Britain, it is based on more first hand knowledge, is better organized, and is written in a vigorous and subtly amusing style. An introduction to this edition outlines Defoe's life, locates the "Tour" among his other works, and reveals the extent of his involvement in the life of early 18th century Britain. Notes to the text and captions to the illustrations explain contemporary technical and industrial processes and historical allusions, identify people, and provide information on buildings and places.


This article briefly reviews literature regarding the involvement and participation of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families in the special education process. Barriers to family participation and strategies for facilitating family participation are summarized. Furthermore, we highlight important issues regarding raising the awareness of professionals when they develop Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) or Individualized Education Programs (IEPS) with families from CLD backgrounds. We discuss implications for families, professionals, and programs to highlight the importance of developing collaborative and effective IFSPs and IEPs with all families.


Contrastively trained text-image models have the remarkable ability to perform zero-shot classification, that is, classifying previously unseen images into categories that the model has never been explicitly trained to identify. However, these zero-shot classifiers need prompt engineering to achieve high accuracy. Prompt engineering typically requires hand-crafting a set of prompts for individual downstream tasks. In this work, we aim to automate this prompt engineering and improve zero-shot accuracy through prompt ensembling. In particular, we ask"Given a large pool of prompts, can we automatically score the prompts and ensemble those that are most suitable for a particular downstream dataset, without needing access to labeled validation data?". We demonstrate that this is possible. In doing so, we identify several pathologies in a naive prompt scoring method where the score can be easily overconfident due to biases in pre-training and test data, and we propose a novel prompt scoring method that corrects for the biases. Using our proposed scoring method to create a weighted average prompt ensemble, our method outperforms equal average ensemble, as well as hand-crafted prompts, on ImageNet, 4 of its variants, and 11 fine-grained classification benchmarks, all while being fully automatic, optimization-free, and not requiring access to labeled validation data.


Focusing on the long-running magazine Les Inrockuptibles , this article examines how far the "national myth" of French chanson (Looseley 2003) has been maintained in contemporary French music journalism, particularly in terms of the values of quality, emotion and social/political commitment. Discussion also highlights the importance attached to regenerating chanson : long-established artists are viewed in mentoring roles, while Serge Gainsbourg, more than twenty years after his death, is identified as a key inspiration. Chanson and the singer-songwriter are also situated within a broad network of musical and cultural influences and collaborations, both French and international.  Moreover, the writing of lyrics in English is viewed as a legitimate aspiration. Finally, new developments in the production and mediatisation of chanson are represented in music coverage, as DIY/ artisanal approaches become more popular and as the television talent show develops in new directions.


Background Fatty acid bile acid conjugates (FABACs) are novel synthetic molecules that solubilize cholesterol, prevent cholesterol crystal and gallstone formation, and dissolve pre-existing gallstones in mice. They are thus potential agents for gallstone prevention and treatment. The available knowledge concerning their biliary, systemic or possible toxic effects is, however, incomplete. Aim To obtain information regarding biliary and systemic effects of FABACs. Methods Hamsters, rats and mice were administered C20-FABAC intragastrically, and serum and bile chemistries, organ histology, animal wellbeing, and survival were monitored. Results FABAC feeding (150 mg/kg/day) caused no adverse effects in any of the animal species studied. FABAC did not influence biliary cholesterol, phospholipid, or bile-salt concentrations in mice. In hamsters, biliary cholesterol concentration decreased slightly, but effects on phospholipids and bile salts were inconsistent. In some mouse strains, FABAC supplementation increased transaminases slightly. In hamsters and rats, transaminases were mainly unaffected or even decreased. Serum alkaline phosphatase, creatinine, albumin and glucose were generally unaffected by FABAC feeding. No gross or histopathological differences between controls and FABAC-fed animals were noted in any of the organs investigated. Conclusions C20-FABAC given at a pharmacological dose is safe and devoid of any significant toxic effects in three different animal species.


Neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is a lethal subtype of prostate cancer arising mostly from adenocarcinoma via neuroendocrine transdifferentiation following androgen deprivation therapy. Mechanisms contributing to both NEPC development and its aggressiveness remain elusive. In light of the fact that hyperchromatic nuclei are a distinguishing histopathologic feature of NEPC, we utilized transcriptomic analyses of our patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, multiple clinical cohorts, and genetically engineered mouse models to identify 36 heterochromatin-related genes that are significantly enriched in NEPC. Longitudinal analysis using our unique, first-in-field PDX model of adenocarcinoma-to-NEPC transdifferentiation revealed that, among those 36 heterochromatin-related genes, heterochromatin protein 1α (HP1α) expression increased early and steadily during NEPC development and remained elevated in the developed NEPC tumor. Its elevated expression was further confirmed in multiple PDX and clinical NEPC samples. HP1α knockdown in the NCI-H660 NEPC cell line inhibited proliferation, ablated colony formation, and induced apoptotic cell death, ultimately leading to tumor growth arrest. Its ectopic expression significantly promoted NE transdifferentiation in adenocarcinoma cells subjected to androgen deprivation treatment. Mechanistically, HP1α reduced expression of androgen receptor and RE1 silencing transcription factor and enriched the repressive trimethylated histone H3 at Lys9 mark on their respective gene promoters. These observations indicate a novel mechanism underlying NEPC development mediated by abnormally expressed heterochromatin genes, with HP1α as an early functional mediator and a potential therapeutic target for NEPC prevention and management.Significance: Heterochromatin proteins play a fundamental role in NEPC, illuminating new therapeutic targets for this aggressive disease. Cancer Res; 78(10); 2691-704. ©2018 AACR.


Using the injection molding method, impact-resistant polypropylene (PP) and glass fibers (GF) with weight ratios of 5 wt%, 10 wt%, 15 wt%, 20 wt%, 25 wt% and 30 wt% were blended twice, completing high-impact PP/ GF composites. Next, the tensile strength test, flexural stress test and IZOD impact strength test measured the composites. According to the results, with an increase in glass fibers, the composites exhibited a greater tensile strength, which further reached to climax when the GF weight ratio was 25 wt%. However, tensile strength appeared inversely proportionate to the blending frequency. In addition, regardless of blending frequencies, the optimum flexural stress occurred when the GF weight ratio was 25 wt%; nevertheless, it started declining when the ratio was 30 wt%. Finally, indicated by IZOD impact test, the greater the GF weight ratio, the lower the impact strength the composites exited.


Dwindling non-renewable energy resources, as well as global warming and air pollution, have forced human beings to seek for alternative resources. Solar energy is one of the most attractive candidates to replace fossil fuels in years to come. Therefore, the research into improving the efficiency, the lifetime and the cost of solar cells has gained momentum worldwide in recent years. Organic solar cells are highly viable as cheaper options for energy harvesting. At present, the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of close to 10% has been demonstrated although further development is still required to push the efficiency beyond the limit required for commercialization. The application of one-dimensional organic nanostructures based on conjugated polymers for organic solar cells has gained some interest recently. These nanostructures enable highly efficient solar cell devices, through improved photon harvesting and enhanced charge transport. In particular, solar cell devices based on the nanostructures of poly(3-alkylthiophene) derivatives have exhibited PCEs in the range of 3 – 4%. Nevertheless, the performance of organic nanostructure devices generally falls below those that undergo the conventional thermal annealing. The work presented in this thesis focuses on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) nanofibers and their applications for organic solar cells, and is expected to drive the research of other organic nanostructures with high aspect ratios. The optical, electrical and morphological characterizations of the P3HT nanofiber blends reveal the potential as well as the limitations of the organic nanostructure system. It was found that the morphology of the blends of P3HT nanofibers and fullerene molecules should be optimized to reduce holes recombination prior to extraction to external electrodes. The poorer device performance could be attributed to the poor interconnectivity between the nanofibers. Subsequently, with the application of solvent additives with high boiling points and with the suitable interaction energies with the active materials, improvement in the morphology results in a better-connected nanofiber blend. The benefit of organic nanostructures is more pronounced in an all-polymer blend system, which may suffer either a more severe phase separation or intermixing. It is shown that the pre-formed P3HT nanofibers could maintain their crystallinity in the all-polymer blend, thus enabling improved blend absorption, exciton dissociation and charge transport. Besides all-polymer blends, in terms of morphological stability, organic nanostructures also have an edge for ternary blend systems. The negative impact of the dopant molecules on the original blends is moderated when the active materials are transformed into the more morphologically stable organic nanostructures.


The morphological features of chronic viral hepatitis C were studied on specimens from 33 autopsy cases of heroinomania. A comparison group was presented with liver biopsy specimens taken in 17 cases corresponding to those of the study drug non-abusers diagnosed as having chronic viral hepatitis C. Chronic viral hepatitis C in drug abusers as compared to drug non-abusers was characterized by more pronounced hepatocytic dystrophic changes, less significant inflammatory infiltration of the portal tracts, a higher incidence of cholestasis with reactive changes in the epithelium of the biliary tract, fibrosis of the central venous walls. On immunohistochemical detection of hepatitis C virus NS3 antigen, an immunohistochemical reaction was less evident in the drug-abusers than in non-abusers, which showed the less replicative activity of hepatitis C virus in the liver of drug-abusers, which was caused by pronounced hepatocytic dystrophic changes and secondary immunodeficiency.


The use of global gene expression profiling, also known as transcriptomics or genomics, provides a means to identify key pathways affected in ageing skin that can be improved with appropriate cosmetic compounds. Aspects of skin ageing that can be addressed include matrix production, barrier, lipid synthesis, antioxidant capacity and hyperpigmentation. Gene expression profiling together with in vitro human skin cell cultures for compound screening and verification have led to the identification of cosmetic compounds and an understanding of the biological effects of compounds such as niacinamide, Pal‐KTTKS, hexamidine, retinyl propionate and sodium dehydroacetate. In addition, understanding of the decreased antioxidant capacity of aged skin has led to the identification of new antiageing ingredients, olive‐derived fatty acid ethoxylates, which have been shown to restore antioxidant enzymes in skin keratinocytes and fibroblasts. Gene expression profiling of age spots has also provided an understanding of the role of undecylenoyl phenylalanine in reducing melanin production by an adrenergic receptor mechanism in melanocytes. The use of these compounds in cosmetic formulations for skin care can aid improvements in the appearance of aged skin, including the improved appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and age spots.


Building on previous research published in Secret Manoeuvres in the Dark, corporate and police spying on activists (2012), the author proposes a new field of research called Activist intelligence and covert strategy. Using exclusive access to previously confidential sources, Secret Manoeuvres showed how companies such as Nestle, Shell and McDonald's use covert methods to evade accountability. The author concluded that corporate intelligence gathering has shifted from being reactive to proactive, and identified a seriously under-researched area: the state's concern with corporate interests, their close cooperation in collecting intelligence on campaigners, and a shared agenda in dealing with dissent. This paper encompasses an introduction to the published case studies, a definition of the proposed research field, and an exploration of its positioning in a multidisciplinary area as well as its theoretical embedding. The discussion under Methods: Hybrid Projects makes a case for the fusion of journalistic and social scientific approaches to the subject matter.


This work describes the identification of designs that benefit from a Dynamic Circuit Specialization (DCS) implementation on FPGAs. In DCS, the circuit is specialized for slowly changing inputs, called parameters. For certain applications or cores, a DCS implementation is faster and smaller than the original implementation. However, the best DCS implementation can be hard to identify, as it requires the designer to be familiar with both the design and DCS. In this paper, we present a profiling tool to aid the designer in analyzing the feasibility of a DCS implementation. It automatically provides a functional density estimate for the most interesting DCS implementations.


Legacy system data models can interoperate only if their syntactic and semantic differences are resolved. To address this problem, we developed the Intelligent Mapping Toolkit (IMT), Which enables mixed-initiative mapping of metadata and instances between relational data models. IMT employs a distributed multi-agent architecture so that, unlike many other efforts, it can perform mapping tasks that involve thousands of schema elements. This architecture includes a novel federation of matching agents that leverage case-based reasoning methods. As part of our pre-deployment evaluation for USTRANSCOM and other DoD agencies, we evaluated IMT's mapping performance and scalability, We show that combinations of its matching agents are more effective than any that operate independently, and that they scale to realistic problems.


To estimate posthypoxia depressing effects on newborns, ventilatory and metabolic effects of repeated hypoxia were studied in 1- to 3-day-old (group 1) and 2-wk-old (group 2) conscious rabbits. In group 1 (n = 18), ventilation was measured by means of a flow plethysmograph. The barometric method was used in group 2 (n = 21). In an additional 19 pups of group 1 and 17 rabbits of group 2, oxygen consumption (VO2) and carbon dioxide production (VCO2) were measured with an open-flow method. In control animals minute ventilation (VE), respiratory rate, tidal volume, VO2, and VCO2 were recorded at 10-min intervals for approximately 100 min in room air. All variables did not change with time. Separate sets of newborns were exposed five times for 10 min to 10% O2 in N2. Each exposure was followed by 10 min of recovery in room air. VE measured during recoveries after hypoxia always returned to normal in group 1. In group 2, the normoxic VE during the last recovery was greater than the first value in hypoxia-treated rabbits (P < 0.05) and greater than the last value in control rabbits (P < 0.02). Although the VE response to hypoxia was not affected by repetitive exposures in group 2, at minute 5 of the fifth exposure the VE response was greater than that during the first trial in group 1 (P < 0.02). Repetitive exposures had no effects on metabolic response to hypoxia in all pups. Results of this study indicate that hypoxia-related central inhibition, if developed during the exposures, is reversed by 10 min of breathing room air in newborns.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The article outlines a framework for the analysis of religion and foreign policy. Despite the increased attention to religion in international relations, questions remain. Particularly controversial, yet relatively unexplored, is the role of religion in the foreign policies of states. We extrapolate from theories in the fields of international relations and comparative politics to explore religion's potential avenues of influence on foreign policy. There are potential tools of analysis in these fields, which can be fruitfully extended and applied to understand the role of religion in foreign policy. We propose a framework within which various causal pathways and mechanisms can be situated. We also show how contributions from the field of religion and politics might be used to frame theories and specify further hypotheses about religion and foreign policy. After identifying the main threads of these lines of research, we discuss how to apply them to the question of the role of religion in foreign policy and set out a new research agenda. We conclude that the potential of these theoretical approaches to the analysis of religion has not yet been exploited.


The potential of Serious Games (SGs) in education is widely recognized, and their adoption is significant in particular in children instruction. However, the deployment rate of SGs in higher education (HE) and their proper insertion in meaningful curricula is still quite low. This paper intends to make a first step in the direction of a better characterization of the pedagogical effectiveness of SGs in HE, by providing a qualitative analysis based on our field experience using three games for entrepreneurship, that we have studied in the light of two well established pedagogical paradigms, such as the Revised Bloom's taxonomy and the Kolb's Learning stages. In general, we observe that SGs address several goals of the Bloom's taxonomy, in particular at the lower levels. Moreover, the cyclical nature of the business simulations can be directly mapped to the sequential steps described by Kolb. However, our analysis also shows that SGs have still to significantly evolve in order to become an effective and efficient tool that could be successfully and reliably used in HE. In the light of our experience, we also propose a schema for a proper integration of SGs by supporting different goals in different steps of a formal education process, Our study finally suggests directions for future research in the field.


Background: The concept of a virtual community of practice (VCoP) emanates from the need to create a new mode of learning and knowledge development platform. It has also been found that highly structured forums are not always the best way to assist people to learn and improve their knowledge. The first author (main researcher) has limited background knowledge and professional practice in the area of VCoPs. Within this context, the investigation of the use of VCoPs to optimise knowledge sharing within stakeholders is the central theme of this research. The authors adapted the life cycle knowledge flow model and present an extended model that resulted after an empirical research was conducted with various VCoPs. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to report on the research that, firstly, attempted to find a suitable model among all previous research conducted on knowledge sharing (management) and to create a new model that could be used to optimise knowledge sharing within VCoPs. Method: In this research, a review of literature was used to define the main concepts of this research. A qualitative methodology was used. The responses received using two questionnaires were analysed to establish some premise, derived from the findings. The Miles and Huberman framework for qualitative analysis was also used to analyse the data set received from participants in the two questionnaires administered. This framework for analysis includes data reduction, data display, drawing and verifying conclusions. Results: An extended life cycle knowledge flow model is proposed to optimise knowledge sharing within VCoPs. Conclusion: A comprehensive knowledge flow model, namely the extended life cycle knowledge flow model, was found to be most suited from the literature. The analysis of two questionnaires, one administered in 2011–2012 and the other in 2016, led to the adaptation of the model to enhance knowledge sharing within VCoPs and, in turn, to develop and optimise knowledge sharing in enterprises.


This paper presents a novel method of combining the object detection algorithms and the methods used for image classification aiming to further boosting the object detection performance. Since the algorithm and image features which used in the image classification tasks have not been well transplanted into the object detection method, most of the reason is that the feature used in the image classification is extracted from the whole image which have no space information. In our framework, firstly we use the detection model to propose the candidate windows; in the second stage the candidate windows will act as the whole image to be classified. Intuitively, the first stage should have high recall, while the second stage should have high precision. In our proposed detection framework, a SVM model was trained to combine the scores computed from both stages. The proposed framework can be generally used, while in our experiments we used the LSVM as the object detector in the first stage and the mostly used deep convolutional neural network classifier in the second stage. Finally, a combined model shows that the object detection performance can be further boosted under this framework in our experiments.


We present time-resolved optical spectroscopy of the dwarf nova CSS100603:112253−111037. Its optical spectrum is rich in helium, with broad, double-peaked emission lines produced in an accretion disc. We measure a line flux ratio He i λ5876/Hα = 1.49 ± 0.04, a much higher ratio than is typically observed in dwarf novae. The orbital period, as derived from the radial velocity of the line wings, is 65.233 ± 0.015  min. In combination with the previously measured superhump period, this implies an extreme mass ratio of M_2/M_1 = 0.017 ± 0.004. The Hα  and He i λ 6678 emission lines additionally have a narrow central spike, as is often seen in the spectra of AM CVn-type stars. Comparing their properties with cataclysmic variables (CVs), AM CVn systems and hydrogen binaries below the CV period minimum, we argue that CSS100603:112253−111037 is the first compelling example of an AM CVn system forming via the evolved CV channel. With the addition of this system, evolved CVs now account for 7 per cent of all known semidetached white dwarf binaries with P_orb < 76 min. Two recently discovered binaries may further increase this figure. Although the selection bias of this sample is not yet well defined, these systems support the evolved CV model as a possible formation channel for ultracompact accreting binaries. The orbital periods of the three ultracompact hydrogen accreting binaries overlap with those of the long-period AM CVn stars, but there are currently no known systems in the period range of 67–76  min.


ABSTRACT Lengthy adaptation periods in laboratory studies evaluating the potential for contaminant biodegradation in natural or engineered environments may indicate that the native microbial communities are not metabolizing the contaminants in situ. In this study, we characterized the adaptation period preceding the biodegradation of 3-chlorobenzoate in anaerobic communities derived from lake sediment and wastewater sludge digesters. The importance of alternative mechanisms of adaptation of the anaerobic communities to 3-chlorobenzoate was evaluated by monitoring the concentrations of metabolic substrates and products as well as the levels of total small subunit (SSU) rRNA and SSU rRNA from populations thought to be important in 3-chlorobenzoate mineralization. The anaerobic environments from which the 3-chlorobenzoate-degrading communities were derived contained different levels of endogenous substrates. Increasing methane levels in the digester and sediment communities and decreasing chemical oxygen demand concentrations in the sediment community during the adaptation periods revealed that endogenous substrates were preferentially utilized relative to 3-chlorobenzoate. Methane and chemical oxygen demand concentrations leveled off concomitantly with the onset of 3-chlorobenzoate biodegradation, suggesting that depletion of the preferentially degraded endogenous substrates stimulated 3-chlorobenzoate metabolism. Consistent with these observations, adaptation to 3-chlorobenzoate occurred more rapidly in digester samples that were depleted of endogenous substrates compared to samples that contained high levels of these biodegradable compounds. Other potential adaptation mechanisms, e.g., genetic change or selective population enrichment, appeared to be less important based on the reproducibility and relative lengths of the adaptation events, trends in the SSU rRNA levels, and/or amplification of SSU rRNA genes from key populations.


The paper describes a platform developed by the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) group at University College London over the past five years to facilitate online data capture by Citizen Scientists in the context of community science, where local environmental problems are monitored. Responding to user needs, the platform has been developed to be as flexible as possible in terms of the types of data that can be captured -- these currently include numbers, text, video, photography, pull-down lists, multiple selection lists and so forth. Live data feeds and links to social networking such as twitter have also been incorporated. This platform is database-centric, and thus allows capture and storage of data from multiple devices (currently Web and mobile) in one central location. All map-based data is captured and held in native spatial data format inside the database. To support Citizen Science activity, the system has been designed to allow new projects to be added without the requirement for additional development (programming), and an administration tool developed to support this task. Each project is allocated custom themes depending on the project requirements and a variety of 'skins' can be configured to give the website a different appearance in each case. The platform is currently used by over 20 different groups within the United Kingdom -- though mostly for more social and perceptual data collection, rather than scientific. After demonstrating its use in an urban noise study, it is now adapted to use in air pollution studies. An extension to mobile devices (Android) is also underdevelopment.


BACKGROUND: Recently the American Board of Pediatrics has undertaken an effort to examine the components and structure of pediatric fellowship training. To provide the current status of training programs and the perspectives of those in positions of leadership regarding fellowship training, a study of all fellowship program directors in the United States was undertaken. METHODS: We conducted a mail survey of all 719 pediatric fellowship program directors in the United States. RESULTS: The response rate was 82.2%. Fellowship directors were almost evenly divided regarding whether they believe that there is a need to change the expected amount of clinical training time in their own subspecialty, with 51% stating the amount was appropriate and 48% believing it should be increased. Fewer than half (42%) of program directors believe that the amount of scholarly training time should be the same for all fellows in their subspecialty regardless of career path (ie, primarily clinical versus primarily research). The majority (58%) stated that regardless of career path, the required training for all fellows in their own subspecialty should remain 3 years. Only one-third of program directors strongly believed that quality improvement activities were an important component of fellowship training. CONCLUSIONS: Variation exists among fellowship program directors in their perceptions of the goals and structure of fellowship training. Determining the best way to both account for and recognize the specific nuances of each subspecialty, while maintaining a common set of standards for the profession, will be an important and ongoing effort into the future.


Chitosan has a medical application because of its natural origin and properties of bio- degradability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, and antimicrobial capacity. Electrospinning produces non-woven nanofibers to wound dressing with high specific surface area and small pores. These properties are favorable for absorption of exudates and prevent the penetration of bacteria, thus promoting wound healing. For this reason, chitosan blends are used to produce nanofiber dressings, and the characterization of the structural, mechanical, and biological properties is very promising for further studies. Nowadays, the researchers are seeking for biomaterials that provide modern dressings with many qualities, which are designed to promote wound healing. In this chapter, the electrospin- ning parameters that affect the nanofiber properties based on chitosan to prepare wound dressings are highlighted.


A segmental HMM is a HMM whose states are associated with sequences of acoustic feature vectors (or segments), rather than individual vectors. By treating segments as homogeneous units it is possible, for example, to develop better models of speech dynamics. This paper begins by describing a type of segmental HMM in which the relationship between the state and acoustic level descriptions of a speech signal is regulated by an intermediate, articulatory layer, and discusses its potential benefits for speaker recognition. As a first step towards applying this type of model to speaker recognition, text-dependent speaker verification results obtained on YOHO using a simpler segmental HMM are presented, which show a 44% reduction in false acceptances using the segmental model compared with a conventional HMM. Experiments in text-independent speaker verification on Switchboard are then described.


In this chapter we discuss methods to calculate the entanglement of a system using density-functional theory. We firstly introduce density-functional theory and the local-density approximation (LDA). We then discuss the concept of the 'interacting LDA system'. This is characterised by an interacting many-body Hamiltonian which reproduces, uniquely and exactly, the ground state density obtained from the single-particle Kohn-Sham equations of density-functional theory when the local-density approximation is used. We motivate why this idea can be useful for appraising the local-density approximation in many-body physics particularly with regards to entanglement and related quantum information applications. Using an iterative scheme, we find the Hamiltonian characterising the interacting LDA system in relation to the test systems of Hooke's atom and helium-like atoms. The interacting LDA system ground state wavefunction is then used to calculate the spatial entanglement and the results are compared and contrasted with the exact entanglement for the two test systems. For Hooke's atom we also compare the entanglement to our previous estimates of an LDA entanglement. These were obtained using a combination of evolutionary algorithm and gradient descent, and using an LDA-based perturbative approach. We finally discuss if the position-space information entropy of the density—which can be obtained directly from the system density and hence easily from density-functional theory methods—can be considered as a proxy measure for the spatial entanglement for the test systems.


The oxidation of dimethyl ether (DME) was studied using a jet-stirred reactor over a wide range of conditions: temperatures from 500 to 1100 K; equivalence ratios of 0.25, 1, and 2; residence time of 2 s; pressure of 106.7 kPa (close to the atmospheric pressure); and an inlet fuel mole fraction of 0.02 (with high dilution in helium). Reaction products were quantified using two analysis methods: gas chromatography and continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy (cw-CRDS). cw-CRDS enabled the quantification of formaldehyde, which is one of the major products from DME oxidation, as well as that of hydrogen peroxide, which is an important branching agent in low-temperature oxidation chemistry. Experimental data were compared with data computed using models from the literature with important deviations being observed for the reactivity at low-temperature. A new detailed kinetic model for the oxidation of DME was developed in this study. Kinetic parameters used in this model were taken from literature or calculated in the present work using quantum calculations. This new model enables a better prediction of the reactivity in the low-temperature region. Under the present JSR conditions, error bars on predictions were given. Simulations were also successfully compared with experimental flow reactor, jet-stirred reactor, shock tube, rapid compression machine, and flame data from literature. The kinetic analysis of the model enabled the highlighting of some specificities of the oxidation chemistry of DME: (1) the early reactivity which is observed at very low-temperature (e.g., compared to propane) is explained by the absence of inhibiting reaction of the radical directly obtained from the fuel (by H atom abstraction) with oxygen yielding an olefin + HO2·; (2) the low-temperature reactivity is driven by the relative importance of the second addition to O2 (promoting the reactivity through branching chain) and the competitive decomposition reactions with an inhibiting effect.


Light-emitting gel, a gel state electroluminescence material, is reported. It is composed of a ruthenium complex as the emitter, an ionic liquid as the electrolyte, and oxide nanoparticles as the gelation filler. Emitted light was produced via electrogenerated chemiluminescence. The light-emitting gel operated at low voltage when an alternating current was passed through it, regardless of its structure, which is quite thick. The luminescence property of the gel is strongly affected by nanoparticle materials. TiO2 nanoparticles were a better gelation filler than silica or ZnO was, with respect to luminescence stability, thus indicating a catalytic effect. It is demonstrated that the light-emitting gel device, with quite a simple fabrication process, flashes with the application of voltage.


In this letter, we propose a novel scheme to reduce the PAPR of OFDM signals. It combined the channel estimation in OFDM system based on comb-type pilots and Flipping PTS algorithm. At the sender we insert comb pilot independently and evenly into every partitioned sub-blocks after partition. The side information of Flipping PTS algorithm as one part of the channel frequency response is transmitted. We can achieve Flipping PTS algorithm without SI. Simulation results show that performance of the new algorithm without SI is worse than the algorithm with SI. However, it reduced PAPR, increased of the data rate.


We describe the iterative co-design process and evaluation of an early autism screening tool (EAST). EAST is an intermediary interactive tablet based app that assists in the early-detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by screening preschoolers in Pakistan through play-based activities in a home, school or clinical setting. Medical professionals, parents of autistic children and teachers were surveyed through focus groups to understand the reasons that contribute to the increasing number of missed early detections, and late- or misdiagnoses. We also evaluate the acceptability, usability and validity of our tool. We tested EAST with both typically developed and autistic children on how they relate to people, imitation, motor skills, visual and intellectual response. They were scored via time taken, the number of wrong attempts, or incorrect answers and audiovisual feedback. This paper contributes towards a digital autism screening tool that delivers insights into the child's behaviour and enables collaboration among parents, teachers and medical professionals.


Many people in Mediterranean region who consult with spiritual healers, homeopaths and herbalists are utilizing traditional therapies. These are the first choice for problems such as liver diseases, inflammation, skin diseases, infertility, impotence, diabetes, obesity, epilepsy, psychosomatic troubles, and many other diseases. The demand for medicinal plants has increased globally due to the resurgence of interest in and acceptance of herbal medicine. Most of the demand is being met through collection of large quantities of medicinal plants and plant parts from wild populations. The methods of extraction employed are almost invariably crude and unsystematic. As a consequence, the rates of exploitation may exceed those of local natural regeneration. Ferula assa-foetida L. (Apiaceae) is a medicinal plant indigenous to Iran and Afghanistan. This plant is one of the most important among the thirty species of Ferula distributed in Iran. It is an herbaceous and perennial plant that grows up to 2 m high. One part used is an oleo-gum resin, called asa-foetida or Anghoze in Persian, obtained by incision from the roots. It has been reported in Iranian folk medicine to be antispasmodic, aromatic, carminative, digestive, expectorant, laxative, sedative, nerving, analgesic, anthelmintic, aphrodisiac and antiseptic. Iran is one of the most important producers of this plant in the world. Also Ferula is one of the most important endangered medicinal plants, which is rare in nature due to poor seed germination. In this article author introduce his field, qualitative and participatory study on harvesting, main characteristics and economical importance of this valuable medicinal plant in South-Khorasan province, east of Iran as a major producer and exporter.


Gene editing has tremendous potential to benefit society and food production. Yet, the social license to develop the technology to its full potential is dependent on public support and market acceptance. Traditionally it has been assumed that sound science and appropriate government oversight will result in social acceptance of innovation. What consumers want first and foremost, according to research from The Center for Food Integrity (CFI), is to know that food producers share their values, like producing safe, affordable, nutritious food in a manner that protects our environment. Sixty-five percent of U.S. consumers surveyed want to know more about how food is produced (CFI, 2017). Testing of videos about CRISPR indicate more than half of viewers want to learn more, and support for CRISPR rose from 45 to 60% when given credible, clear and understandable information. In reviewing more than 15 studies about consumer opinions on biotechnology, CFI found these consistent themes. 1) There is a considerable knowledge gap among consumers – in science and modern plant and animal breeding. 2) Before describing gene editing, it is helpful to show the evolution of genetic improvement. 3) The public wants information from credentialed experts, but they do not want an academic explanation. 4) Analogies and visuals are important to explain science, and they should be understandable without being oversimplified. 5) Consumers show strongest support for benefits of science related to environmental stewardship, healthier food and disease resistance. 6) Consumers have additional questions about use of science in animals, compared to plants. Because scientists and academic institutions among the most-trusted sources for information about biotechnology, they have a unique opportunity to effectively engage and provide information the public wants and needs to make informed decisions about gene editing.


A high-speed and small-area power and resolution adaptive flash ADC is presented. The high-speed power and resolution adaptive ADC (HSPRA-ADC) utilizes an encoder design which significantly improves its speed and minimizes the chip area over the earlier design. Moreover, the ADC also achieves lower power consumption compared to the earlier design. The HSPRA-ADC enables exponential power reduction with linear resolution reduction. The unused parallel voltage comparators are switched to the standby mode during which they consume only the leakage power. The HSPRA-ADC was designed and simulated using 0.18 /spl mu/m and 0.07 /spl mu/m CMOS technologies. The HSPRA-ADC is desirable in wireless mobile applications.


An electrostatic discharge (ESD) evaluation of a silicided 0.25 /spl mu/m complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology is carried out by HEM, CDM, and TLP tests. Good ESD hardness and device performance are obtained by using retrograde-like well profiles. It is shown that devices with minimum gate length do not necessarily give the best ESD-results. This is due to a difference in failure mechanism between the shortest and the longer channel devices and possibly by a more homogeneous snapback of the slightly longer devices.


Should religious landowners enjoy special protection from eminent domain? A recent federal statute, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), compels courts to apply strict scrutiny to zoning and landmarking regulations that substantially burden religiously owned property. That provision has been controversial in itself, but today a new cutting-edge issue is emerging: whether the Act's extraordinary protection should extend to condemnation as well. The matter has taken on added significance in the wake of Kelo, where the Supreme Court reaffirmed its expansive view of the eminent domain power. In this Article, we argue that RLUIPA should not give religious assemblies any extraordinary ability to resist condemnation. We offer two principal reasons for this proposal. First, the political economy surrounding condemnation is markedly different from that of zoning, so that broadening the law's protections beyond zoning to cover outright takings would be unnecessary and ineffective. Second, the costs of presumptively exempting congregations from condemnation are likely to be far higher than the costs of applying strict scrutiny to zoning. In conclusion, we identify an important implication of our argument for the law's core zoning provision – namely, our proposal invites local governments to circumvent RLUIPA by simply condemning religious property that they find difficult to zone because of the Act. On the one hand, this gives local governments a needed safety valve while, on the other hand, requiring them to pay just compensation to religious groups. Our proposal therefore suggests a powerful compromise. DE-FANGING RLUIPA: RELIGION AND THE POLITICS OF EMINENT DOMAIN Christopher Serkin and Nelson Tebbe


. The aim of this study is to present the possibilities of using structured analytical techniques in building investigative versions. They may relate to ongoing criminal or operational proceedings, but also allow verification of versions created for the purposes of supervision or evaluation of other proceedings. In this area, the study complements and at the same time extends the existing knowledge in the field of forensic tactics. The author presented the current state of knowledge on the methods of building criminal versions and the theoretical justification for the introduction of these techniques to the practice of law enforcement agencies in this aspect. An outline of the methodology of the application of analytical techniques in the construction of new and verification of existing research methods is also presented. This study is based on the author's speech at the 3rd National Scientific Conference entitled 'Police X Files' organised by the Faculty of Law and Administration University of Lodz from September 26th–28th, 2018.


Reinforcement and concrete can work together to bear load in reinforced concrete structures, one of the main reasons is the relatively prefect bond between reinforcement and concrete. When steel reinforcement corrodes, the bond strength decreases and leads to the degradation of the reinforced concrete members. This paper built a finite element model by selecting appropriate stress-strain relationship of concrete and reinforcement, bond-slip relationship between concrete and corroded steel bars. The flexural behavior of corroded reinforced concrete lock-walls was analyzed by nonlinear finite element method. The calculated results were compared with the test results to verify the reliability of the finite element model. Finally, the influence of corrosion level of steel reinforcement and concrete strength on the normal section bearing capacity of lock-walls were discussed.


Infill walls are non-structural elements, which are mainly used for architectural purposes. Besides contribution of infill walls is ignored during the structural analysis, the effect of the infill walls are usually taken into account through the application of additional loads and masses appropriately distributed along the interfaces between the surrounding frame and the infill walls. In doing so, the stiffness and strength contribution of the latter elements as well as their interaction with the members of the Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame are also ignored. Practically some of the earthquake design codes like Turkish code neglect the effects of the non-structural infill walls. However the presence of infill walls significantly increases the stiffness and the strength of a frame. The reasons of this increment are high in-plane stiffness of infill and the composite action of the infill and the frame. On the other hand, plastering significantly affects the behaviour of infill walls. Thus, the dynamic characteristics of a building also affected by the infill walls of building having plaster or not.


Background: Peptide-based subunit vaccines require strong adjuvants (immunostimulant) for therapeutic potency. There is strong demand for the discovery of new safe adjuvants and vaccine delivery systems that can be produced in a highly controlled manner. The pH dependent self-assembly of isopeptide derivatives into fibrils has been reported. Appropriately designed fibrils may have adjuvanting potency. Methods: Isopeptides conjugated to B-cell peptide epitopes (antigens) were synthesized. Properties of the resultant conjugates and their ability to undergo O-N intramolecular acyl migration reaction were analysed by HPLC, circular dichroism, and transmission electron microscopy. Results: The conjugates were converted to "parent" peptides via the pH-triggered O-N acyl migration reaction. The parent peptides aggregated into fibrils. The differences in conjugates composition resulted in different fibril morphology. Aggregation of produced peptides induced desired secondary conformation of antigens (peptide epitopes). Conclusions: The isopeptide approach presented herein may serve as a new self-adjuvanting delivery system for peptide-based vaccines. Such vaccines could be stable when stored in a non-aggregative form, and then converted on demand to the active form in pH-controlled manner. The use of a vaccine that is solely composed of endogenous components may reduce vaccine-associated side effects.


Background: There is uncertainty about the appropriate use of screening mammography in older women. We compared the benefits and harms of screening mammography frequency according to age and comorbidity scores. Methods: We conducted analyses within a prospective cohort study of four mammography registries in the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium that had mammography data linked to Medicare claims information. Participants included 137,949 women aged 66–89 years without breast cancer and 2,993 women with breast cancer. We estimated odds of advanced (IIb, III, IV) stage, large tumor size (>20 millimeters), and estrogen receptor (ER) negative tumors and cumulative probability of false-positive mammography after 10 years of screening by mammography frequency, age and comorbidity score as determined by the Charlson Comorbidity Index. Results: Mammography biennially vs. annually for women aged 66–89 years does not increase risk of tumors with unfavorable characteristics regardless of women's comorbidity score. Cumulative probability of a false-positive result for annual and biennial screening of women aged 66–89 years with a comorbidity score of ≥1 was 48 (46.1, 49.9) and 29 (28.1, 29.9) respectively. False-positives were more common among annual screeners than among those screened biennially irrespective of women's comorbidity score. Conclusion: Mammography annually vs. biennially does not have added benefit for women aged 66–89 years, even among those in good overall health as reflected by the lack of comorbidity. Risk of false-positive mammography is much higher with annual mammography.


A Sub-1V, MOS-only Voltage Reference Circuit (VRC) has been proposed with the utmost of transistors working as subthreshold region for low-supply and low-power applications. A supply-insensitive current is passed to Active Load Circuit (ALC) for supply and temperature independence at the output reference voltage. It has four current mirrors connected in a closed loop configuration to generate a supply-independent current which is passed through the ALC resulting supply and temperature insensitive output reference voltage. The ALC has a combination of two subthreshold NMOS transistors having different threshold voltages. The presented VRC is simulated using standard 90 nm CMOS model for 0.25-1 V supply voltage range. The simulation result gives minimum operating voltage required as 0.25 V for which all transistors work in their respective region of operation. For the supply range of 0.25-1 V, the obtained mean voltage reference is 100.4 mV with the line regulation of 0.186 mV/V. The temperature coefficient (TC) of 51ppm/°C is achieved for a wide temperature range of -50 to 135°C with the given minimal operating supply voltage. The power dissipation for minimal supply voltage at room temperature is 33 nW. The proposed VRC exhibits a high PSRR of -52.5 dB at 100Hz and -29 dB at 1 MHz.


The special comprehensive multidisciplinary programme for tuberculosis control was used as a basis for planning. The developed special comprehensive interdepartmental programme for tuberculosis control in the region is aimed at involving all services and departments in whom tuberculosis control should be a national, official, professional duty. A multidisciplinary approach to organizing and making antituberculous measures is especially required as antituberculous institutions have the shortest funds now. The programme has approved by the regional administration.


Population decline, welfare state reforms and austerity measures pressurise the liveability of rural areas in the Netherlands and call upon local governments and communities to adapt and renew their mode of governance. This paper reports on three Dutch experimental governance arrangements which are analysed through the lens of Evolutionary Governance Theory. The study focuses on how decision-making roles change while these arrangements unfold and how the three municipalities institutionalise these changes in the course of time. The study produces three main conclusions. First, the readiness and preparedness of local governments to shift decision-making roles with citizens proved to be of main influence on governance change. Second, local residents' commitment importantly affected the progress of the experiments, while social cohesion and tangible outputs strongly influenced the extent and continuity of such commitment. Third, although the arrangements took place in the same period of time and abovementioned context, the level of institutionalisation of shifting roles between government and residents differed among the cases. Certain pathways of evolving decision-making roles seem to be more stable than others. It is in this area that the extent of both formal and informal institutionalisation seems to play an important role.


Species diversity and species limits of the small fruit-eating bats, genus Dermanura (Phyllostomidae: Stenodermatinae) were examined. Estimates of species diversity based on classical morphological criteria (current taxonomy) were compared to diversity estimates based on monophyly and cytochrome-b sequence divergence. The most recent taxonomic list included nine species, whereas the genetic based list contained 11: anderseni, azteca, bogotensis, cinerea, glauca, gnoma, phaeotis, rava, rosenbergi, tolteca, and watsoni, of which three (bogotensis Andersen, rava Miller, and rosenbergi Thomas) have been considered synonyms of cinerea, glauca, phaeotis, and tolteca by previous authors. In addition, we consider incomitata to be a synonym of watsoni. Phylogenetic analyses of mtDNA sequences resolved the interrelationships among taxa and prompted us to re-evaluate some morphological characters that support the distinction of all the recognized taxa, therefore providing a robust estimate of species status. A phylogenetic tree revealed a geographic component to the diversification of Dermanura, including a historical connection between western Andean and Middle American biota. In South America, no species has been recorded from both sides of the Andes Mountains, and at least one clade (glauca, gnoma, and bogotensis) is restricted to the eastern versant of the Andes. Using genetic data (monophyly and genetic distance) to identify species we were able to produce testable genealogical and biogeographic hypotheses to facilitate further studies.


This paper presents a split-based approach (SBA) to automatic and unsupervised change detection in large-size multitemporal remote-sensing images. Unlike standard methods that are presented in the literature, the proposed approach can detect in a consistent and reliable way changes in images of large size also when the extension of the changed area is small (and, therefore, the prior probability of the class of changed pixels is very small). The method is based on the following: 1) a split of the large-size image into subimages; 2) an adaptive analysis of each subimage; and 3) an automatic split-based threshold-selection procedure. This general approach is used for defining a system for damage assessment in multitemporal synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The proposed system has been developed to properly identify different levels of damages that are induced by tsunamis along coastal areas. Experimental results that are obtained on multitemporal RADARSAT-1 SAR images of the Sumatra Island, Indonesia, confirm the effectiveness of both the proposed SBA and the presented system for tsunami-damage assessment


In flexible display, reliability of the thin film/polymer interface is an important issue because adhesion strength dissimilar materials is often inherently poor, and residual stresses arising from thermal mismatches or pressure exerted by vaporized moisture often lead to delaminations of interfaces. In the present study we deposited various thin films such as silicon nitride (SiNx), aluminum metal layer, and indium tin oxide on polyether sulphone (PES) substrate. The film adhesion was determined by micro-scratch test. The adhesion strength, presented by the critical load, Lc, when the film starts to delaminate, was determined as a function of plasma pretreated on PES substrate.


The reverse shoulder arthroplasty indications are cuff tears arthropaty, revision of anatomic prosthesis and traumatology. The reverse shoulder arthroplasty doesn't need a rotator cuff integrity to be functional. However, complications are not rare (dislocation, descellement, infection...). The patient selection has to be rigorous. In any case, patient must be older than seventy years.


The rostromedial medulla participates in a large variety of sensory, motor, and autonomic functions. We asked whether individual bulbospinal neurons in this region have localized, target‐specific terminal arbors or whether they collateralize broadly in the spinal cord. Collateralization was quantified along three spinal axes, rostrocaudal, left‐right, and dorsoventral, by using double retrograde labeling. Fluorogold was applied to one target, and cholera toxin B chain (CTB) was applied to the second. We determined the prevalence of neurons that retrogradely label with both tracers in the constituent nuclei of the rostromedial medulla, the raphe nuclei, the gigantocellular reticular nucleus (Gi, bilaterally), the Gi pars alpha (GiA, bilaterally), and the midline medullary reticular formation. A large fraction of neurons in each of these nuclei had bulbospinal projections, ranging from ≥56% for the raphe nuclei to ≥14% for the Gi. For reasons discussed, these values are probably underestimates. Most of the neurons that projected to the lumbar spinal cord also projected to the cervical cord. Likewise, most neurons that projected to the ventral horn also had a collateral branch in the dorsal horn. However, relatively few had bilateral projections; most projected ipsilaterally or contralaterally. A considerable degree of collateralization was also seen among vestibulospinal neurons. The high level of collateralization of the descending projections of the rostromedial medulla suggests that neurons in this area ultimately act on peripheral target tissues or functions that are widely distributed in the body, or that they play a generalized modulatory role across functional modalities, rather than playing specific topographically delimited roles. J. Comp. Neurol. 506:960–978, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Necropsy of a six year old female German Shepherd revealed the presence of a large oval mass in the thoracic cavity originating from the thickened proximal portion of the right fourth rib. Osteolytic osteosarcoma was diagnosed on the basis of gross appearance, presence of many pleomorphic spindle cells, containing pink stained intracytoplasmic granules in cytological preparations of impression smears of the tumor and histopathology. The tumor was considered highly malignant and was characterized by an abundant osteoblastic and connective tissue stroma with extreme cellular pleomorphism including giant cells, atypical mitoses and occasional trabeculae of tumor bone and osteoid. Metastases were found in the lung and spleen. Electron microscopy was carried out to support the diagnosis.


The expansion induced by cold working is a common process that generates residual stresses. It is used when fatigue damage accumulation and life reduction of aluminum alloy perforated plates is an issue in the aeronautics industry. This process is an attractive solution to extend the fatigue lifetime of these structures. It aims at generating residual stresses and increases thereby the strength of hollow parts including aluminum alloy plates with holes commonly used in the manufacture of airplane fuselage. Unfortunately, the life predictions require a good prediction of the residual stresses and in particular when reverse yielding takes place. An analytical model to predict the residual stresses induced during the expansion process due to the cold strain hardening is developed. The proposed analytical model is based on an elasto-plastic behavior, with a power law material behavior and relies on the theory of autofrettaged thick wall cylinders in plane strain state to which reverse yielding is incorporated. The application of Hencky theory of plastic deformation is used in the analytical calculations of the stresses and strains. Finite element numerical simulation is used to validate the developed analytical model by comparison of the radial, hoop, longitudinal, and equivalent stresses for both the loading and unloading phases. The obtained results show clearly that the level of residual stresses depend mainly on the interference and strain hardening while reverse yielding reduces the stresses near the hole.


Hexavalent chromium is a heavy metal that is toxic and give bad impact to human living. Maximum consentration of hexavalent chromium of solution that can be accepted is 0,05 ppm. This research was conducted to reduce hexavalent chromium by photoreduction method using mesophorous TiO 2 -Mn thin film photocatalyst with a tungsten lamp. Tha aim of this research is to obtain optimum ratio of TiO 2 -Mn (100:0; 99:1; 98:2; 97:3; and 96:4) to reduce hexavalent chromium. A thin film was synthesized by photodeposition method with calcination temperature 400 0 C for 6 hours. TiO 2 -Mn was crushed and made into coloidal phase with PEG 1000, then coated on a glass plat (9X4 cm). Thin film was tested to reduce hexavalent chromium with tungsten lamp and its concentration was measured by UV-Visible Spectrophotometer at wave length of 541 nm. The result showed that 99:1 is an optimum ratio of TiO 2 -Mn and it reduce hexavalent chromium up to 52,3 %. The decrease of hexavalent chromium concentration caused by the photoreduction process in mesophorous TiO 2 -Mn


We present the first radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the atmosphere of white dwarf stars. We demonstrate that convective energy transfer is seriously impeded by magnetic fields when the plasma-β parameter, the thermal-to-magnetic-pressure ratio, becomes smaller than unity. The critical field strength that inhibits convection in the photosphere of white dwarfs is in the range B = 1–50 kG, which is much smaller than the typical 1–1000 MG field strengths observed in magnetic white dwarfs, implying that these objects have radiative atmospheres. We have employed evolutionary models to study the cooling process of high-field magnetic white dwarfs, where convection is entirely suppressed during the full evolution (B ≳ 10 MG). We find that the inhibition of convection has no effect on cooling rates until the effective temperature (Teff) reaches a value of around 5500 K. In this regime, the standard convective sequences start to deviate from the ones without convection due to the convective coupling between the outer layers and the degenerate reservoir of thermal energy. Since no magnetic white dwarfs are currently known at the low temperatures where this coupling significantly changes the evolution, the effects of magnetism on cooling rates are not expected to be observed. This result contrasts with a recent suggestion that magnetic white dwarfs with Teff ≲ 10,000 K cool significantly slower than non-magnetic degenerates.


The 21st century society is shaped by improvisation and driven by incidents and impulses: one where agents engage in problem-solving practices and freely deal with institutional logics and opportunities. Is it possible to improve improvisation from a normative perspective? In what way do 'crafting communities' contribute to this public challenge? And to what extent do new forms of governance emerge from these improvising and crafting practices? Emerging Governance presents several innovative studies addressing all these novel questions and more about public policy and governance. Topics vary from the decentralization of care and welfare and citizen participation in security policy to current regulation forms and the functionality of social research in network society. Target group This book will be of interest to scholars in Public Administration, Politics Sciences and Social Sciences.


The purpose of this paper is to study the determinants of equilibrium in the market for daily funds. We use the EONIA panel database which includes daily information on the lending rates applied by contributing commercial banks. The data clearly shows an increase in both the time series volatility and the cross section dispersion of rates towards the end of the reserve maintenance period. These increases are highly correlated. With respect to quantities, we find that the volume of trade as well as the use of the standing facilities are also larger at the end of the maintenance period. Our theoretical model shows how the operational framework of monetary policy causes a reduction in the elasticity of the supply of funds by banks throughout the reserve maintenance period. This reduction in the elasticity together with market segmentation and heterogeneity are able to generate distributions for the interest rates and quantities traded with the same properties as in the data.


YouTube has enabled new forms of political dissent in Arab societies. This article examines the development and rise of YouTube in the Arab world. In particular, it looks at how this video exchange site is invigorating the online public sphere's vigorous demand for political reform and respect for human rights. Specifically, this investigation explores how social networking capabilities have made YouTube an effective asset in dissidents' arsenal among Arab activists. To examine the vibrancy of this fledgling online public sphere, the chapter scrutinizes how activists incorporated YouTube videos to shed light on human rights abuses, specifically police abuse, corruption, and brutality in two Arab countries, Egypt and Morocco. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the new campaigning modes that the Internet and YouTube have facilitated.


This study was carried out for eight weeks to investigate the effect of replacing soyabean meal with baobab seed meal in the diet of broiler chickens. Two hundred and twenty five (225) day-old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to five dietary treatments at both starter and finisher phases. At each phase, 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the soya bean in the diets were replaced with baobab seed meal (BSM); Each treatment was replicated thrice with 15 birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). At the starter phase, feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) showed no significant difference (p>0.05) across dietary treatments. Significant (p<0.05) difference was however observed for feed intake at the finisher phase. Body weight gain per bird for both starter and finisher phases showed no significant difference. FCR showed no significant difference at the starter phase. At the finisher phase however, significant difference was observed. Birds on (25%) BSM consumed less feed (2.47 g/bird/day) to gain a unit weight, Birds on (75%) and (100%) BSM levels had significantly (p<0.05) poorer FCR than birds on (25% BSM). The cost benefit analysis showed that birds fed 0% BSM were the poorest in terms of cost-cutting measure. This study revealed that broiler chickens fed diets that contained BSM as well as those that received no BSM in their diets showed identical performance. It therefore suggests the dietary substitution of BSM at 100% for both the starter and finisher phases as most appropriate for optimum performance.


Recently, composite materials are used in many fields because their properties are high strength, high stiffness, and they have light weight, good corrosion resistance and good thermal conductivity. However, composite materials have relatively a lot of problems, especially delamination, compared with common materials such as a steel and aluminum, etc. Therefore, having the interlaminar fracture toughness for a laminate composite is important. In this study, the end notched flexure (ENF) specimens are employed in order to evaluate modeⅡ interlaminar fracture toughness for CFRP laminate composites. Three kinds of a/L ratio were applied to these specimens under the different pressure level. Also, we discuss the relation of crack growth and the interlaminar fracture toughness in terms of AE characteristics using ENF test.


Ontario's Greater Golden Horseshoe is experiencing rapid growth that if unchecked could perpetuate "sprawl" and threaten the Region's sustainability. To manage this growth, the Province adopted a program of "Smart Growth" and prepared a regional Growth Plan amidst a suite of complementary legislation. Municipalities are now expected to accommodate high levels of growth with an adequate supply of water and the necessary infrastructure to support increased demand. This invites the question of whether growth can be sustained through infrastructure upgrades, or whether absolute hydrologic limits will reshape regional growth. To investigate this, two strands of research are merged, which have traditionally been carried out individually - Smart Growth and "Planning by the Pipe". This paper argues that Ontario should align its growth management strategy with the servicing capacity and lifespan of water and wastewater infrastructure as well as the finances required for their maintenance and expansion. This consideration must not only reflect preferred areas for growth but the region's hydrological capacity to support the increased demand in these areas.


Abstract —The Salman Farsi dam project is constructed on the Ghareh Agahaj River about 140km south of Shiraz city in the Zagros Mountains of southwestern Iran. This tectonic province of south- western Iran is characterized by a simple folded sedimentary sequence. The dam foundation rocks compose of the Asmari Formation of Oligo-miocene and generally comprise of a variety of karstified carbonate rocks varying from strong to weak rocks. Most of the rocks exposed at the dam site show a primary porosity due to incomplete diagenetic recrystallization and compaction. In addition to these primary dispositions to weathering, layering conditions (frequency and orientation of bedding) and the subvertical tectonic discontinuities channeled preferably the infiltrating by deep-sited hydrothermal solutions. Consequently the porosity results to be enlarged by dissolution and the rocks are expected to be karstified and to develop cavities in correspondence of bedding, major joint planes and fault zones. This kind of karsts is named hypogenic karsts which associated to the ascendant warm solutions. Field observations indicate strong karstification and vuggy intercalations especially in the middle part of the Asmari succession. The biggest karst in the dam axis which identified by speleological investigations is Golshany Cave with volume of about 150,000 m 3 . The tendency of the Asmari limestone for strong dissolution can alert about the seepage from the reservoir and area of the dam locality.


Abstract Laser circular cutting of Inconel 803 alloy is carried out. Temperature and stress fields are predicted in the cutting section using ABAQUS finite element code mimicking the experimental conditions. To examine the influence of the hole diameter size on the thermal stress field developed in the cutting section, 2 mm and 10 mm hole diameters are considered in the experiments and analysis. Temperature predictions are validated through the thermocouple data. Morphological and elemental changes in the cutting section are examined incorporating the analytical tools. It is found that laser cut holes are free from large size asperities such as cracks and excessive sideways burnings. However, few small dross attachments are observed at the kerf exit for the small diameter (2 mm) hole. The maximum temperature is higher for small diameter hole than that of the large diameter hole (10 mm) prior to cutting ceases, which is attributed to heat transfer rates from kerf site to its neighborhood. von Mises stress remains low in the region where temperature remains high in the cooling period. This is associated with the elastic modulus of the substrate material, which reduces with increasing temperature. von Mises stress becomes almost same for small and large diameter holes after the cooling period ends and it is in the order of 0.45 GPa.


Spatial relationships or proxemics play an important role in how humans interact with other people and objects in an environment, yet spatial relationships are not thoroughly exploited within smart environments. Objects designed to be aware of its proxemics facilitate implicit and explicit interaction with humans. Kitchen As-A-Pal is an interactive smart kitchen that provides an infrastructure for sensing and modeling proxemics among objects and human using a sonar network and RFID technology. Position, movement, identity and location are the proxemics dimensions explored in kitchen As-A-Pal. A pilot study of a breakfast scenario comprising of 9 everyday activities in Kitchen As-A-Pal using 2 subjects yielded promising proximity tracking results with a precision of 100% and a recall of 68.3% for spatial zones with high and medium average time percentages (ATP). Also, 53.21% ATP has more than 95% recall values.


The study of the dynamic behaviour of vehicles using computer simulation has been one of the major areas of research for many years. Based on the application area, the models used for performing these studies vary greatly in their capability, complexity and amount of data required. The multi-body approach is most preferred when it comes to itera- tive design optimization, whereas relatively simple models are mostly used for studying basic handling characteristics and vehicle stability. However, for studies involving critical han- dling manoeuvres, it is imperative to include certain amount of detail in the vehicle model, which accounts for the influence of suspension geometry and tyre characteristics on han- dling behaviour. The aim of the present research is to develop a vehicle model, based on Newton-Euler for- mulation of equations, incorporating sufficient degrees of freedom and adequate non linear characteristics for the realistic simulation of severe handling manoeuvres. The model is veri- fied against experimental vehicle data and is finally used for the investigation of critical handling manoeuvres on surfaces with uneven friction. During this procedure, the tendency of the vehicle to rollover is assessed, together with other dynamic outputs such as yaw veloc- ity and lateral acceleration


'As in a view from afar'. Vondel's epistemological objections to Spinoza's circle

 From a philosophical and theological stance, Spinoza and Vondel are traditionally portrayed as downright antipodes. Whereas Spinoza is seen as a pre-eminent representative of 'radical Enlightenment', Vondel is generally considered as a rather reactionary author who does not fit at all in this radical version of Enlightenment. The central aim of this article is to modify this generally agreed perception. On the basis of recent historical research in the relation between the circle of Spinoza and Vondel, the affinities between both authors can be brought to the fore, in particular when looking at their writings on the relation between politics and religion. The gap between their views becomes only apparent when their respective views of God are at stake: there is an undeniable contrast between Spinoza's naturalist pantheism and Vondel's classic theism. In order to understand that very difference, the focus will be laid on two writings, conceived in more or less the same period: Vondel's philosophical-theological poem Bespieghelingen van Godt en Godsdienst and Spinoza's Verhandeling over de verbetering van het verstand (Treatise on the Emendation of Understanding). The central difference between the two authors in these writings relates to their methodological approach of existential questions about God and salvation, in particular to their dissent concerning the epistemological role of the geometrical method and the specific role of language. One of the hypotheses I propound in this respect is that Vondel's relation to Lodewijk Meyer has been of utmost importance in order to explain their different methodological positions. Finally, I indicate the topical relevance of this methodological difference for contemporary philosophical reflection.


Background Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability reason of childhood that occurs secondarily to non-progressive damage in the brain whose development is still ongoing. Methods 6-year-old dystonic-spastic male CP patient received allogenic mesenchymal stem cells treatment four times as 1×106/kg in intrathecal and intravenous administration of Umbilical Cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) ways. Before and after the treatment, the patient was followed-up with FIM (Functional Independent Measurement), GMFCS (Gross Motor Function Classification System 88), Tardieu Scale, TCMS (Trunk Control Measurement Scale), MACS (Manual Ability Classification Scale), CFSS (Communication Function Classification System) for 18 months and received intensive rehabilitation. Results Improvements were observed especially in functional scales except for the Tardieu Scale, and no adverse effects were detected aside from a slight pain in the back. Conclusion Wider future case studies on UC-MSCs will enable us to assess the efficacy of UC-MSCs which have positive impacts especially on functional scales.


An indirect enzyme-induced in situ formation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was investigated for the spectrophotometric detection of inorganic mercury (Hg2+) in aqueous solution. The enzymatic activity of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) assists the formation of AgNPs, which is prevented upon the addition of an excess amount of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). On addition of the enzyme substrate 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)diammonium salt (ABTS), the excess amount of H2O2 converts the ABTS into the radical cation (ABTS˙+), which could help in restarting the HRP activity for the formation of AgNPs. The addition of increasing amounts of Hg2+ (HRP inhibitor) in the reaction mixture resulted in the progressive inhibition of the enzyme activity and could cause AgNP accumulation. The morphological changes caused during the enzyme-induced formation of AgNPs were further studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The developed probe achieved a good limit of detection 0.78 × 10−9 M and a limit of quantification of 2.6 × 10−9 M in aqueous solution. The probe also demonstrated high recovery percentages for Hg2+ spiked in environmental matrices, highlighting the importance of the developed probe.


Introduction In the Beginning: God Peers at His Reflection The Looking Glass Universe A Short Walk in the Ancient Woods: Imagining Ourselves into the Minds of the Ancients The Garden of Eden: The Genesis Code Enter the Dark Lord The Flower People Lucifer, the Light in the World: The Apple of Desire A War in Heaven The Secrets of the Days of the Week The Gods who Loved Women: The Nephilim The Genetic Engineering of Humankind The Fish Gods The Original History of the Origin of the Species The Assassination of the Green King: Isis and Osiris The Cave of the Skull The Palladium The age of Demi-Gods and Heroes: The Ancient Ones The Amazons Enoch Hercules, Theseus and Jason The Sphinx and the Timelock: Orpheus Daedalus, the First Scientist Job Solving the Riddle of the Sphinx The Neolithic Alexander the Great: Noah and the Myth of Atlantis Tibet Rama's Conquest of India The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali The Way of the Wizard: Zarathustra's Battle Against the Powers of Darkness The Life and Death of Krishna the Shepherd The Dawn of the Dark Age Getting to Grips with Matter: Imhotep and the Age of the Pyramids Gilgamesh and Enkidu Abraham and Melchizedek The Descent into Darkness: Moses and the Cabala Akhenaten and Satan Solomon, Sheba and Hiram King Arthur and the Crown Chakra Reason - And How to Rise Above it: Elijah and Elisha Isaiah Esoteric Buddhism Pythagoras Lao Tzu The Mysteries of Greece and Rome: The Eleusian Mysteries Socrates and his Daemon Plato as a Magus The Divine Identity of Alexander the Great The Caesars and Cicero The Rise of the Magi The Sun God Returns: The Two Jesus Children The Cosmic Mission The Crucifixion in South America The Mystic Marriage of Mary Magdalene The Tyranny of the Fathers: The Gnostics and the Neoplatonists The Murder of Hypatia Attila and Shamanism A Touch of Zen The Age of Islam: Mohammed and Gabriel The Old Man of the Mountains Haroun al Raschid and the Arabian Nights Charlemagne and the Historic Parsifal Chartres Cathedral The Wise Demon of the Templars: The Prophecies of Joachim The Loves of Ramon Lull St Francis and the Buddha Roger Bacon Mocks Thomas Aquinas The Templars Worship Baphomet Fools for Love: Dante, the Troubadours and Falling in Love for the First Time Raphael, Leonardo and the Magi of Renaissance Italy Joan of Arc Rabelais and the Way of the Fool The Green One behind the Worlds: Columbus Don Quixote William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and the Green One The Rosicrucian Age: The German Brotherhoods Christian Rosencrantz Hieronymus Bosch The Secret Mission of Dr Dee Occult Catholicism: Jacob Boehme The Conquistadors and the Counter-Reformation Teresa, John of the Cross and Ignatius The Rosicrucian Manifestoes The Battle of While Mountain The Occult Roots of Science: Isaac Newton The Secret Mission of Freemasonry Elias Ashmole and the Secret Chain of Transmission What Really Happens in Alchemy The Age of Freemasonry: Christopher Wren John Evelyn and the Alphabet of Desire The Triumph of Materialism George Washington and the Secret Plan for the New Atlantis The Mystical-Sexual Revolution: Cardinal Richelieu Cagliostro The Secret Identity of St Germain Swedenborg, Blake and the Sexual Roots of Romanticism The Illuminati and the Rise of Unreason: The Illuminati and the Battle for Soul of Freemasonry Occult Roots of the French Revolution Napoleon's Star Occultism and the Rise of the Novel The Mystic Death of Humanity: Swedenborg and Dostoyevsky Wagner Freud, Jung and the Materializing of Esoteric Thought The Occult Roots of Modernism Occult Bolshevism Gandhi Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: The Anti-Christ Re-entering the Ancient Wood The Maitreya Buddha The Opening of the Seven Seals The New Jerusalem Acknowledgements Illustration acknowledgements A Note on Sources and Selective Bibliography Index


This research examined the importance of social model in the child development. Comparative Case Study was used to achieve this goal through comparing a rich child committed a theft crime against another self-steam and hard working child. The findings of this research indicated some important factors in child development and behavior. The key finding in this regard reflected in the fact that in the two cases. The Family relations did play an important role in the child life where each child tried to fill the gap in his life from friends and street relations. This included the good or bad social model that each child adopted in his life and his social out look to his future in general. Thus, sociologists should focus their research to the significance of social model in child life and development.


The direct objective of the suicide bomber is not only to bring their own death, but to cause the largest possible number of casualties among the community of potential adversary. The death of the executive intensifies the feeling of fear, because it shows complete intransigence of bomber and his willingness to submit biggest sacrifice in the form of his life. When planning terrorist attacks, the terrorists are counting primarily on the psychological effect, and it is much greater when made by woman, in many traditional environments identified as vulnerable, fragile, unable to harm. Article aims to describe the phenomenon of female suicide Islamic terrorism, on selected examples that clearly show similarities and differences among female suicide bombers in the various communities.


Climate change is a key problem of the 21st century. China, as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has committed to stabilize its current emissions and dramatically increase the share of electricity production from non-fossil fuels by 2030. However, this is only a first step: in the longer term, China needs to aggressively strive to reach a goal of zero-emissions. Through detailed discussions of electricity pricing, electric vehicle policies, nuclear energy policies, and renewable energy policies, this book reviews how near-term climate and energy policies can affect long-term decarbonization pathways beyond 2030, building the foundations for decarbonization in advance of its realization. Focusing primarily on the electricity sector in China - the main battleground for decarbonization over the next century – it provides a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers, as well as energy and climate experts.


Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of the most economically important infectious diseases of production animals globally. Vaccination can help to control this disease, however, current vaccines are imperfect. They are made using chemically inactivated FMD virus (FMDV) that is produced in mammalian cell culture under high containment. Here, we have expressed the FMDV capsid protein precursor (P1-2A) of strain O1 Manisa alone or with the FMDV 3C protease (3Cpro) using a "single cycle" packaged alphavirus self-replicating RNA based on Semliki Forest virus (SFV). When the FMDV P1-2A was expressed with 3Cpro then processing of the FMDV capsid precursor protein is observed within cells and the proteins assemble into empty capsid particles. In cattle vaccinated once with these rSFV-FMDV vectors alone, anti-FMDV antibodies were elicited but the immune response was insufficient to give protection against FMDV challenge. However, the prior vaccination with these vectors resulted in a much stronger immune response against FMDV post-challenge and the viremia observed was decreased in level and duration. In subsequent experiments, cattle were sequentially vaccinated with a rSFV-FMDV followed by recombinant FMDV empty capsid particles, or vice versa, prior to challenge. Animals given a primary vaccination with the rSFV-FMDV vector and then boosted with FMDV empty capsids showed a strong anti-FMDV antibody response prior to challenge. Following challenge with FMDV, the cattle were protected against disease and no FMDV RNA was detected in their sera. Initial inoculation with empty capsids followed by the rSFV-FMDV was much less effective at combating the FMDV challenge and a large post-challenge boost to the level of anti-FMDV antibodies was observed and clinical disease occurred. This prime-boost system, using reagents that can be generated outside of high-containment facilities, offers significant advantages to achieve control of FMD by vaccination.


INTRODUCTION: Dental fluorosis is a disturbance of high prevalence caused by the ingestion of fluoride ions present mainly in toothpaste. Preventive measures to avoid it are still controversial. Thus, knowing the impact that fluorosis can cause on the population's quality of life it is important for planning public health policies.OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of dental fluorosis on the quality of life of children and adolescents.MATERIAL AND METHOD: We studied 300 subjects aged 8 to 12 years divided into 4 groups: children (8-10 years) and adolescents (10 to 12 years) with and without fluorosis. The diagnosis of fluorosis was performed according to the index Thylstrup and Fejerskov and quality of life was evaluated using Child Perceptions Questionnaire 8-10 and 11-14. The socio-demographic characteristics of the patients were also evaluated. For inclusion in the sample, selected patients should present eight permanent incisors with crowns fully erupted. Patients who had extensive restorations, fractured teeth, other dental enamel defects and who wore braces were excluded.RESULT: Fluorosis was present in 64.7% of the patients analyzed and in most cases (80.3%) was mild or very mild. In children, the average overall score of the questionnaire was 15.9 for the group without fluorosis and 18.3 for the group with fluorosis (p = 0.255). The teenagers' score in the group without fluorosis was 26.1, while the group with fluorosis was 22.7 (p = 0.104).CONCLUSION: Dental fluorosis caused impact on the quality of life of the population analyzed only in the functional domain.


The kinetics of the inhibition of Maillard browning of glucose and glycine by suIphur(IV) oxospecies, S(IV), are reported in detail in water, and solutions containing either 40% w/w ethanol, 40% w/w polyethylene glycol 400 or up to 81.5% w/w glycerol. The progress of the reaction was followed by measuring free and reversibly bound S(IV), production of H+ and formation of sulphate ion. Equilibria between S(IV)-species were investigated by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy.
Kinetic data show that despite earlier reports demonstrating a lack of an effect of pH on this reaction, maintaining of reaction mixtures at a constant pH causes considerable increases in rate.
Overall the kinetics support the following 3-step mechanism,

[diagram available in .pdf]
S(IV) glycine
hydroxysulphonate hydroxysulphonate hydroxysulphonate

where DH, DDH and DSH represent 3-deoxyhexosulose, 3,4-dideoxyhexosulos-3-ene and 3,4-dideoxy-4-sulphohexosulose. Some autoxidation of S(IV) also takes in practice. The kinetically measured dissociation constant of the hydroxysulphonate of DH is found to be 0.28 M and this is the first report of kinetic evidence for such an interaction in the S(IV)-inhibited Maillard reaction. Hydrogen ion production during the reaction is the result of a condensation reaction between glucose and glycine, and autoxidation of S(IV).
FTIR spectroscopy shows that addition of glycerol as a humectant does not cause the expected conversion of HSO3-t0 S2O52- in solution. Instead new species, e.g. ion pairs such as NaS205_, are formed and S2O52' is probably less important in concentrated foods, than once thought. The effect of humectant is to increase both k] and k2 (aw 1-0.43) and the effects are explained in terms of equilibria involving water as a reactant and interactions between transition states of the solvent.


The present invention relates to a method of producing coatings of metal oxide, nitride or carbide or mixtures thereof, whereby operating a High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering, HIPIMS, discharged on one or more target (s) (3), in an argon and reactive gas mixture (5, 6), at peak pulse power higher than 200 Wcm-2, in which the deposition rate is improved and in the need for partial reactive gas pressure feedback systems is eliminated.